These are the 4 realistic outcomes of getting rid of section 230 protections which say: no interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher.
Option 1: every post must be vetted and manually approved by mods. For a big site, not doable.
Option 2: everyone must register with real id and they are all responsible for what they posted. Doable, and goodbye anonymity. Dictators wet dream. Welcome thought police.
Option 3: Say fuck it and close shop, get rid of all user content.
Option 4: stop doing business in the us, host all servers, all infrastructure, register everything in foreign countries.
This is what they are all begging for. Complete fucking idiocy. 230 is the only reason we can have a forum like this. It's the only reason you are allowed to post on someone else's site. Unless of course if you want to just use foreign companies servers.
It's about liability. If the website is liable for what users post they will just choose all user content.
Imagine if the win owner could be sued for someone saying "Hillary eats baby faces". This is what could happen without the 230 protections.
Couldn't he just say "it is an opinion of user and the user IP is 1.2.3.4, find him and prosecute if you wish. I'm heplful and cooperative publisher"?
If not. its like sueing shop owner for selling a kitchen knife used in murder by customer.
The problem is they are now a publisher so they are liable for having published it, doesn't matter who wrote it.
If the NY Times publishes a story by Michael Parsons that says Donald Trump is a transsexual hooker, the NY Times gets sued as the distributed the story, and maybe Michael too.
Weird, but now the point is visible, thank you.
Does US law know about the thing named intention?
Or in US a publisher by definition have full rights, authority and means to check any article before publishing and definitely know if it is truth or lie?
I dunno, the whole thing would have to be rethought if they took out 230 because the internet doesn't work without it.